


guard dogs

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Found Family Feels, Gen, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25672717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: When a man insults Nile, Andy, Joe and Nicky step in.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 333





	guard dogs

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Could I possibly request a prompt (maybe sometime during one of their breaks in the future) with the team going absolutely feral on someone being passively aggressively racist to Nile?

Nile’s honestly not sure where they are. She knows she doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t even recognize the language, and she knows that it’s honestly a toss up which of them looks the most out of place. But they skirt through crowds and Joe and Nicky keep forcing different foods into her hands to try and she continues to find small weapons on her person that Andy planted without her noticing and it’s so different from anything she’s ever experienced that Nile gets a little lost in it. She’s still on alert, still wary of possible dangers, but she’s come to accept that she can survive anything and she’s with Andy and Joe and Nicky and she feels safe enough to not be constantly on edge. 

Which is maybe why it’s so surprising when the other three stop on a dime and turn on a man who had just walked past Nile. He’d said something, she knew, but he made as much sense as everyone else around here so she hadn’t paid it much thought. The way Andy blocks his path and Joe and Nicky converge behind him tells her maybe she should have considered him more carefully. Not what he said, since she had no hope of translating that, but his body language and the _way_ he’d said it.

Joe says something in the man’s language, his voice low and dangerous. The man spits on him and Nicky cracks him upside the head. 

The man drops to the ground in a heap. People around them start to pay attention, a low murmur erupting accompanied by pointing and pointed looks. Andy ignores all of this to loom over the man, kicking his knee out when he tries to stand up. Her voice is calm when she speaks but loud enough for the crowd close to them to overhear, a few of them shooting the man disgusted looks as they turn and walk away.

Nile stays quiet, content to let this play out before she asks what the hell is going on. 

The man says something and Andy and Joe laugh and take a step back. Without them crowding him, the man gets to his feet, though he stands a little gingerly on the leg Andy kicked. He starts to say something else but Nicky steps in close. His face is earnest, that look on his face that tells Nile she’s about to get a genuine speech on the good of the world, and then he says something that makes the man’s face turn purple and Joe and Andy laugh. He cuts the man off when he tries to speak again, his face and voice still earnest but Nile can see that his eyes are cold. The man must see it too because he starts nodding frantically and backing away. Andy steps aside to let him and he turns and disappears into the crowd. 

The three of them stare after him for a moment as if to make sure he stays gone and then a switch flips and they’re back to normal. 

“You really must try the-” Joe tries to say.

“No,” Nile cuts him off. “What the hell just happened?”

“Ah, you know men like that,” Nicky says. “Thinks you must be the right gender and color to mean anything.” Nicky shakes his head. “Forget him. Joe’s right, you really must try this.” He ushers Nile over to where Joe is waiting, some food held in his hands. It really is delicious. 

As Nile savors the treat, she ruminates on what she’d just witnessed. Nile didn’t speak the language, had no idea what the man had said to her, and the three of them had known that. But it hadn’t stopped them from stepping in and defending her either. 


End file.
